Is hitting someone with a weapon self defense if they're attacking you first?

Not surprising that the lawyer would try and argue in defence of his client.

My understanding is that the law allows for 'reasonable' and 'proportional' use of force as self defence. And it is up to the court to decide when it comes to specific situations. There is also some allowance made for professionalism - it's generally considered that a nightclub bouncer or policeman should have the ability to defend himself and restrain his opponent in a way that doesn't cause significant injury, as opposed to a frightened civilian who might go straight to lethal defence out of fear and lack of training. Which is fair enough.

In the story you posted, it seems like a reasonable act of self-defence on the part of the younger brother. If I were faced with an assailant much bigger and stronger than me, my first instinct would be to try and tip the odds in my favour - grab a weapon, throw a drink in his eyes, turn out the lights and try and surprise him, etc. If I just square up to a massive guy in order to have a 'fair' fight with him, it will end very badly for me!

only exception I can think of is if he continued hitting him with the bat while he lay unconscious. That, in my opinion, would be disproportionate, as the threat is no longer there. No matter how much he 'deserves' it, you are now meting out punishment/revenge rather than defending yourself.

 

You have presented a synopsis of what they said happened. So I don't think we should form anything from such flimsy material alone.

Even if this guy hit the other one in self defense, wasn't he abusing his helpless mother too? I don't know who is the bad guy in here.

 

The mother should of beat the shit out of the younger brother for making her life hell.
Where is the respect and discipline now a days?
I don't blame the older brother for beating his younger. He cared about the well being of his mother. How else was he supposed to teach him respect and discipline? The older brother must have tried speaking to the younger brother on many occasions but he wouldn't listen.

A man respects all women and most importantly he should respect his mother.

 

Everyone should respect everyone else in their lives for whatever role they play.

 

You should read the laws in your area.

 

It depends on where you live. Like here if I hit someone with something to get away or restrain a person, after they’ve attacked me that can be acceptable, but what isn’t acceptable is hitting someone over and over again (otherwise it’s not self defence anymore).

There’s also the implications of what you’re using, as it’s one thing to be your first and another to use a weapon or a bat. If you purposely go for the bat and start thwacking him repeatedly that’s assault, but that’s also a grey area as if it was just once to stun him and you claimed you just picked up something to defend yourself, that can’t really be disputed as long as it looked like you weren’t attacking him.

It comes down to intent, did you purposely use something as a weapon to defend yourself? If you tell police you used that as a defence device/tool you’re screwed, and you’ll be the one getting arrested.